A blog maintained by the team working to hold
oil giant Chevron accountable for its human rights
and environmental abuses in Ecuador

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Did President Obama and the U.S. Department of Justice
extort the billion-dollar damage settlement with BP for its 2010
accidental spill off the Gulf Coast?

Based on legal arguments being made in a U.S.
court, Chevron would have you believe so.

Chevron has accused the Ecuadorian indigenous
groups and their lawyers suing the oil giant for massive oil contamination in the Amazon rainforest of extorting money from the company by applying pressure on its executives to settle.

In a brief filed recently with the Southern
District Court of New York, the Ecuadorians’ lawyer Craig Smyser argued: (See here, page 4.)

“Chevron fallaciously argues that any effort to
effectuate a settlement is part of an organized crime scheme. Hogwash. The
argument turns every settlement conference into a meeting of crime bosses.
Under Chevron’s reasoning, the meetings and public discourse among the United
States Government, plaintiffs’ lawyers, and British Petroleum concerning
settlement of the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill dispute were a RICO scheme.”

Well, today, BP and the DOJ announced a
settlement agreement but no mention by BP of possible extortion or racketeering charges. See
this Chevron Pit, comparing the accidental BP spill
to the intentional contamination by Chevron of the Ecuadorian rainforest.

Chevron also has accused Ecuador President Rafeal Correa
of being part of the racketeering conspiracy to extort money from the oil giant
because he expressed concern for people living near Chevron’s contamination.

“They will pay for the mess they’ve made,” he said. But,
wait, that wasn’t President Correa.That was President Obama.

“So let’s be clear
about a few things: BP is responsible for -- and will be held accountable for –
all of the very significant clean-up and containment costs. They will pay for
the mess they’ve made….The bottom line is that the Administration will
aggressively pursue compensation from BP for any damages from this spill.”

Aggressively
pursue?Be careful, Mr. President.
If Chevron has its way, every government official, lawyer, lobbyist, PR
consultant or even CEO working in tandem to collect damages, possibly through a
settlement, could be facing extortion charges, filed by companies with executives who would rather fight in court than be held accountable for their misconduct.